Red-Robbo

Not to mention the so-called 'emerging nations'. Morocco's performance shows that many have already 'emerged'. The genie ain't going back in the lamp, and I reckon we'll see a non-European/South American world cup winner before long. It isn't unconceivable that it'll be this year.

It was actually a quite serious con perpetuated by two minor gangsters. Have a read of this: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scammed-by-santa-attraction-closes-six-days-after-it-opened-1055550.html The fraudsters - why does it not surprise that they are related to a Conservative politician? - were eventually jailed.

Yup. I don't think you can say a ref who gives you two penalties is biased. I just don't think he was very good. It's amazing really, when you have the entire world to draw officials from, how many absolute belters ended up reffing in this World Cup.

Lightweight. Shandy Bass was the one to order before you hit puberty. "Made with real beer" and a thrilling 1% compared to the wimpy 0.5% of Top Deck. If you were really unlucky, your mum packed you Top Deck Lemon & Lime Shandy. The horror, the horror....

Plays gridiron....

They definitely outnumber City fans there. Luckily, I located another Ciderhead, so a medley of Ashton Gate classics serenaded the mute Gasheads who, to be fair, were OK people to banter with. They thought Barton was a reasonable although limited manager, but repulsive human being, so not too deluded.

TBF Taylor did say that Rotherham collectively played poorly, rather than blaming just one player. He did it quite subtly, using that favoured managerial cliche "a lack of quality let us down". He's seems quite a feet-on-the-ground, sensible guy who knows that there are limitations to what he can achieve on their budget.

Made the mistake of watching it in Shepton Mallet. Found myself surrounded by losers in blue-and-white clowns' outfits. Precisely why Shepton is such a stronghold of Gassery, is unclear. It's nowhere near Gloucestershire. I put it down to being the most depressing town in the Mendips. A depressing night all round. And a depressing hangover now.

My thoughts as well. Not sure what Atko has done to merit being sidelined?

As did comedy writer David Nobbs, who went on to write the Reginald Perrin TV series. Nobbs fictionalised his time as a young reporter in 1960s Rotherham, in his book "Pratt of the Argus", which I highly recommend if you like a laugh.

Yep. At first claimed his computer had been hacked, but presented by evidence to the contrary said it was "banter" that was "taken out of context" but he "didn't regret it".

Quite something isn't it - 2 managers for the 20 years of 1960-1980, 14 (not counting temps) for the 20 years thereafter and 13 for 2000-2020.

Cockernee football fans can be a bit unbearable, but I never got those vibes at Griffin Park.

Sir Lancelot Spratt is my management guru, but I have no medical qualifications. Was just going on what I got told at the time.

After Wimbledon moved to Selhurst Park, I attended a few Brentford games with a mate, but also got the occasional freebie to Stamford Bridge - not that I'd ever call myself a Chelsea fan. In fact, I was there when a Ranieri era Chelsea got dicked over by Arsenal in the Cup and thoroughly enjoyed the moroseness and anger of the guys sat around me.

Some just don't. But as Gray points out, Afobe did. The risk is you have different symmetry and flexibility between legs after ACL surgery and you can therefore put more strain on the repaired ligament. This means, having done it once, you're much more likely to be hit by it again. It can also lead to early onset arthritis in the knee apparently. I never played a game of football again after I did my ACL, but then I wasn't a professional getting professional-level treatment. Strangely, my dog has also done his ACL although after some expensive fixing, his impressive on-the-ball skills are unaffected.

De Bruyne looked just unstoppable at AG, but 4 years on, emminently stoppable in Qatar.

Unfortunately, the "rep" still attracts racists and arseholes from across the UK*, so, yeah, some of the biggest ******* I ever met when I lived in London were 'Wall fans. * Take Sidcup-born, Middlesbrough brought up, Wiltshire-domiciled media columnist and wife-beater Rod Liddle. Where else other than a Millwall online forum would you be able to get away with "jokes" about Auschwitz and calls for black people to be "repatriated".

I don't see any shortage of Liverpool, Chelsea and Man U kits when I walk past *spits* JD Sports. I think it's quite specific to Hummel kits being supplied via so-called Elite Sports.

As we've determined earlier, Hummel get a third-party merchandiser to supply items at various of its clubs - it does the big ones in-house. This third-party supplier, which seems as flaky as f-, has gone into administration, leaving our club shop and various others up the creek. As Hummel still make the items, it's a matter of them getting their Danish arses in gear and finding a different way to get the products from China to BS3. I'd say Bristol Sport has a reasonable case for compo, but that doesn't help punters wanting to buy stuff this Christmas.

See I don't mind him either. I'm not looking for a commentator to tell me all about background and analyse things too much. I can see what's going on. They're just there as background noise and to give you the names of players you are unfamiliar with. I hate to say it about a fellow Red, but I'm not keen on Pearcey, for example. Calm down, mate. We're English, not Paraguayans. The understated Guy Mowbray is my favourite of current commentators.

I've no problem with women doing that job. Women watch and play football, why shouldn't they commentate? Nothing remotely 'politically correct' about not excluding 50% of the population. For me, I don't think she too dreadful, but it's a question of taste. Lots of folks rated the awful John Motson, with his fake chuckle and irrelevant facts shoehorned awkwardly in. He made me turn the commentary off. I do agree with those saying Dublin is a useless pundit though.

Some on that compilation are just clumsiness and TBH that was my main excuse as well. I was never a particularly talented ball-player, but I was fast and big. Usually seeing me bear down on them, encouraged opponents to pass the ball before I reached and collided with them. In a professional game, I'd probably be sent off every match. The nastiest tackles in that video are the two-footed leaping in, which can seriously **** an opponent up. It seems amazing now it wasn't illegal back in the 70s.

I must admit, I wondered whether any of mine might have made it onto that compilation. Never sparked on an on-pitch brawl though. They did wait for us in the carpark once however....